Tolkien, the Father of Modern Fantasy

Tolkien, writer of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings was the father of modern fantasy literature.

Born in South Africa in 1892 he was educated in England and became professor of Anglo-Saxon, English language and literature at Oxford.

Tolkien’s books were undoubtedly inspired by his fascination with the early literature of Old and Middle English.

He had an amazing grasp of language and was known as one of the best philologists in the world. In fact, he invented a special Celtic-style language for the characters in his books.

He even invented a whole new mythological world as a setting for “Lord of the Rings.” His imagination and creativity were boundless.

Tolkien’s books “The Hobbit” and “The lord of the Rings” were in fact the forerunner of a complete new genre of modern fantasy literature – they even led to a new class of games such as Dungeons and Dragons and that hugely popular game World of Warcraft.

So what made Tolkien tick?

Can his handwriting and signature gives us some insight into his creative ability?

There are indeed indications that reveal Tolkien’s inner independence, his ability to go it alone and to write the type of literature that had never been attempted before.

Here is a sample of Tolkien’s handwriting. It comes from a discarded draft from one of his manuscripts.